Something is truly wrong with Israeli baptizing capabilities. Hercules planes are named "Rhinoceros;" the air force commanders obviously never visited a zoo.* Ships bear no less odd names. "Davur" means "wasp" while the related "Dvora" means "bee." Would Israel's next satellite be named "Worm?" Is "Martin" a suitable name for a tank? Only the Elders know.

In a rapid sequence of events that left Middle Eastern rhinos eating dust, between August 23 and 25, 2013, the IDF conducted a series of attacks in Lebanon while announcing the strengthening of its Super-Dvora Squadron along the Lebanese border.

IDF Brave New Plan Implemented

On July 12, 2013, Minister of Defense Ya'alon disclosed a redeployment plan named "Te'uza;" the plan was rumored for a while long, but despite that its details are surprising. The plan includes the cut of almost $2 billion of the army budget, over 10% of it, and its shifting towards hi-tech weapons. Old weaponry and its units would be finally taken out of service.

A substantial rearrangement of the armored forces will take place. Old Magach tanks (Modified American Peton 48 and 60) would disappear. Obsolete Tiran tanks (modified Soviet T34 tanks) would probably be transformed into trendy toasters and given as gifts to needy reservists.

Regular artillery would be downgraded in size. The navy will renounce to its oldest ships. Several air force squadrons would be dismantled or merged. The anti-missiles system, which proved to be little else than expensive fireworks+ during the recent Operation Pillar of Cloud would not be expanded. The IDF wanted to deploy 10 Iron Dome and 4 Magic Wand batteries this year; it won't happen. The regular army will be reduced in 5,000 soldiers.

The image created is the same reported in Key IDF Rearrangement Announced; the IDF is shifting its deployment from a defensive one into a clearly offensive one.**

The first swallow to announce the change arrived on August 25. The maritime border between Israel and Lebanon is patrolled by a squadron featuring Super-Dvora Mark 1 and 2 ships. The Israeli Navy announced its purchase of a Super-Dvora Mark 3 that would be added to the squadron before the removal of the old models in service.

Not only with names the IDF has problems. Unlike older ships (like the Sa'ar class) which were constructed by Israel Shipyards, the Dvora class is built by IAI-Ramta, a division of Israel Aerospace Industries. Are tanks in Israel build by the Tax Authority?

These fast patrol boats are considered the Israeli Navy work horse (shouldn't it be sea-horse?), and have been sold successfully to Sri Lanka and Taiwan.

August 23, 2013 IDF Attack on Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Na'ameh Base
Damascus is the large city inland, Beirut the largest one by the sea

On August 22, four Katyusha rockets approached the Galilee, setting off air-raid sirens in Acre, Nahariya and other areas in the Western Galilee. Sunni group Abdallah al-Azzam Brigades took responsibility for the event. The anti-missiles systems deployed in the area failed+ to perform.

One missile hit Kibbutz Gesher HaZiv, damaging a road and vehicles. Another two landed without damages. The fourth was intercepted between Acre and Nahariya. This is consistent with the roughly 30% success of the anti-missiles system during Operation Pillar of Cloud, despite official claims of 90% success. Not only baptizing is a problem in the IDF; statistics are not their strong point.

All this talk about rhinos and bees left me a bit confused, but that was the obvious intention. The hits had been performed by the Abdallah al-Azzam Brigades while the IDF answer the next day was on the Na'ameh Base of Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, just south of Beirut.

IDF Spokesman Brig-Gen. Yoav Mordechai said that the Israel Air Force struck targets a few kilometers from Beirut adding
"The strike forms a clear message by the IDF and Israel to decision makers in Lebanon whom we see as responsible for yesterday's rocket attack."

Hezbollah-affiliated TV network Al-Manar quoted a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command as saying that the target was the Na'ameh Base. A Lebanese security source confirmed that, adding that the target was a network of tunnels used by the PFLP-GC in hills overlooking the Mediterranean coast. The rocket caused a 5-meter (16-foot) crater, but no casualties.

Hours after that, two explosions near Sunni mosques in Tripoli, further north, caused almost 30 deaths and left hundreds of wounded. Despite claims that it was caused by Hezbollah in retaliation to an earlier attack, Israeli media outlets reported the event while mentioning the earlier air force attack. In the Israeli typical undertone in such cases, the odd linkage is a hint to a secret operation.

"Mr. Minister of Defense, we were attacked by Turkey, let me retaliate in Russia," is the logic displayed by the IDF command. "Rhinos, bees; same, same," the officer continued his bestial monologue, "they are all anti-Semites, the sooner we kill them the better."

———

* Hercules aircrafts have a long history within the IDF. The picture opening the article linked below shows a Mercedes within a Hercules during Operation Entebbe in 1976. During operations Solomon and Moses, the Karnaf Squadrons ("Karnaf" is Hebrew for "Rhinoceros") carried thousands of Ethiopians to Israel.
The IAF Command probably understood that naming an aircraft "Rhinoceros" is a bit awkward. The old two squadrons are being unified these days. The Super-Hercules would have a new, dedicated squadron and a new code name. "Shimshon" is "Samson" in Hebrew; the Biblical name is derived from "Shemesh," sun. The new unit, owning three aircrafts, is scheduled to become operative in April 2014.
See First Super-Hercules Delivered to IAF

+ Israel likes to make boastful declarations about its antimissile systems. Yet, most reports on Israeli media are about failed interceptions. Israel manipulates its antimissile system interception data; this is the result of the systems being aimed for export, mainly to South Korea and Singapore, but also due to the generous American support of the development process. The manipulation is straightforward; the system is deployed exclusively where it has optimal interception conditions. Moreover, during Pillar of Cloud, Israel shot two anti-missiles against every missile. This leads to what in Measurement Theory is known as a bad sampling of data, which becomes unrepresentative of the overall population of the studied event. With this foiled magic, Israeli media claims that the interception rate is 90%. In Pillar of Cloud ends Unfinished, I quoted the data released by the IDF following the operation. It shows that 700 missiles out of the 1,000 fired by Hamas hit Israel. This amounts to a 70% failure of Iron Dome. (Israeli Anti-Missiles Fail in Eilat Attack)